Barn hunt

[Laurelin]

Oh yeah she as definitely shut down the first part and when we were introducing the rats she was paying more attention to the people and dogs around. Her last run she bolted out the start box and really searched hard for a long time but just didn't alert much at all. My old agility instructor (we had 3 of Mia's trainers there!) said she looked a lot happier that last run.

I may email the instructor and see if we can get her introduced on the rats early and away from other dogs and people other than me, maybe? I think being crowded by strange people and dogs really had her worried for about the first hour.

I don't know if they'd have room for multiple dogs but I'd love to try them both. Ack, I'm torn! I'm pretty sure Summer would be totally useless as a rat hunter but would have a blast and be great comedy to watch search if she's anything like she is in nosework. And her natural instinct is to jump on EVERYTHING. Today Summer came but was just passed around from lap to lap. I swear, she's the most popular of the three of us. :lol-sign:

 

[k9krazee]

I think she'll do better with repeated exposure! Some dogs (I've helped start 75 so far) need a couple exposures before they really get into it and learn the game. It's promising that she got better and more comfortable as the day progressed!!

It's completely overwhelming at first for more sensitive dogs.

 

[Torch]

The thing I don't get is that at home Mia has seen several kinds of live traps with mice and gone NUTS. I would have thought that would transfer over very easily? She's always been a big chase fan but if I have a mouse in a trap she is digging at it and biting it and trying to get that darn thing out.

I haven't read the whole thread...what was her introduction to rats? I'm afraid Rhys will do the same thing; act prey-driven and nuts at home but show little interest when it's time to 'hunt'.

I'm thinking about buying some live feeder mice, building my own tube, and training up Rhys at home before his first trial. Mice are easy to feed/keep for a few weeks, and I have friends with snakes who would take them after I'm done.

 

[stardogs]

Some dogs do take some time to get the game - especially if there has been any discouraging of prey hunting before or if they are environmentally sensitive.

On another note, if anyone here is interested in BH and are located in the Southeastern US, there's a new fb group you might want to check out: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1483575698533682/

 

[Laurelin]

She's been hunting mice all day around my living room. I think I'm going to sign her up again but I feel guilty for not trying Summer...

I haven't read the whole thread...what was her introduction to rats? I'm afraid Rhys will do the same thing; act prey-driven and nuts at home but show little interest when it's time to 'hunt'.

I'm thinking about buying some live feeder mice, building my own tube, and training up Rhys at home before his first trial. Mice are easy to feed/keep for a few weeks, and I have friends with snakes who would take them after I'm done.

They had us see the rats in a cage. The rat wasn't really doing much. Then we put the rat in a tube you can't see through and intro'd the dog to that. Mia's problem was so many dogs in line and some were being very crazy and it scared her.

I think I could DEFINITELY train it like nosework and also build the drive. If she saw me holding a rat that'd be it.... But I'm not buying rats to do barn hunts with, LOL.

 

[Laurelin]

I think she'll do better with repeated exposure! Some dogs (I've helped start 75 so far) need a couple exposures before they really get into it and learn the game. It's promising that she got better and more comfortable as the day progressed!!

It's completely overwhelming at first for more sensitive dogs.

The lady who was running it says she won't train dogs who aren't into it and if the dogs don't get excited by the end of the exposure that she would just find another sport. I think Mia just needs more time and a less stressful way to be exposed to the rats.

 

[Torch]

She's been hunting mice all day around my living room. I think I'm going to sign her up again but I feel guilty for not trying Summer...



They had us see the rats in a cage. The rat wasn't really doing much. Then we put the rat in a tube you can't see through and intro'd the dog to that. Mia's problem was so many dogs in line and some were being very crazy and it scared her.

I think I could DEFINITELY train it like nosework and also build the drive. If she saw me holding a rat that'd be it.... But I'm not buying rats to do barn hunts with, LOL.

Yeah, I'm totally not a rat person :rofl1:

But I can handle the little feeder mice...they're actually kind of cute and easy to keep! My husband's afraid I won't be able to designate them as snake food after I train up the pup

 

[k9krazee]

The lady who was running it says she won't train dogs who aren't into it and if the dogs don't get excited by the end of the exposure that she would just find another sport. I think Mia just needs more time and a less stressful way to be exposed to the rats.

That's crazy!!!!! Absolutely. Less stress and a little more time. Sometimes letting dogs intro with a dog who's really into it can help. Some people have also click/treat for any interaction with the rat at first and have had decent results.

I've seen dogs that don't get into it until their second or third time.

Then there are dogs who are gung-ho at first and lose interest quickly when there's no 'reward'. I've had those people carry treats and jackpot a find and it keeps the motivation up.

Other dogs it's very self rewarding and they'll look for rats (that they can't see or touch) all day every day.

They're all different. And there may possibly be a dog who doesn't enjoy the game after repeated exposures and attempts...I just haven't seen it yet!

 

[Danefied]

I just signed me and Bates up for a barn hunt workshop next weekend. I’m so excited. I think Breez would like it too, but the “smaller†dog always gets picked to test things out. I heard something about a 22 inch tunnel and decided on the 26 inch dog versus the 33 inch one LOL.

But yeah, totally excited to see what he’ll do with a barn hunt. Considering he’s been out in the yard most of the day digging up moles, it should be interesting

 

[stardogs]

OOOOooooooh I can't wait to hear how Bates likes barnhunt and if you think Breez will be able to do the tunnel at some point!

 

[Danefied]

OOOOooooooh I can't wait to hear how Bates likes barnhunt and if you think Breez will be able to do the tunnel at some point!

Oh you’ll hear all about it LOL!

 

[Danefied]

Okay so... Barn hunt seminar was FUN!!!!

The blowing, freezing rain not so much, the crazed dogs with clueless handlers not so much, but Bates and I had the best time!

First we showed the dogs the tube with the rat. Some were interested, others not so much. Bates thought it was really cool and then felt the need to love on the rat wrangler and thank her for bringing him such awesomeness. Good start.

First run - bear in mind, Bates has never done anything like this...
Bates runs around like a total maniac, pounces on the tube, everyone cheers, he thinks this is awesome and proceeds to launch himself on to the nearest human who happens to be the presenter who has been dealing with little dogs all day. Poor gal gets caught off guard and thrown in to the side of the barn by giant dog tackling her quite lovingly if you get my drift

I call him off, run him again, this time he grabs a cone from the starting box, races around the barn with cone in mouth, finds the tube, pounces and tackles the tube all while still holding his new toy. "Mom this is the BEST GAME EVER!!!!!"

We took a break, watched some other dogs go, lots of whom were so over stimulated they couldn't do anything productive, others who were so miserable with the weather and all the overstimulated dogs that they too were not even remotely interested in playing find the rat... It was interesting.

Round two for Bates, made it harder, still just one tube but hidden for real now. He did great, much more focused, put his nose down and went in to work/hunt mode. It was really cool. Plus the wind was blowing so it was fascinating to watch how he would catch channels of scent and then back track to the source. Dog noses are so amazing! He loved it, kept focus through the search, found the rats no problem, does a very obvious alert (digging at the tube), so far so good.

Now at this point we may have pushed to far, but we added a litter tube (rat litter, no rat). He did alert on it, but not that interested, then he found the rat and was much more interested in that tube. So for me, it was obvious which was which, but I don't know if we should have given him a litter tube that soon IDK, I'm a scentwork newbie...

All in all I felt like it was a great day. I didn't get to learn much about how to train/prepare to trial other than rules etc., but I definitely got to see that my dog LOVES this game, which is the main thing.

I'm waiting on pictures. The only video I got was off a friend who has it on FB, so only my friends can see it But will upload pics when I get some. There was a professional photographer there, he was clicking away during the cone incident, so I may end up with some blooper shots

 

[Dagwall]

Did our first barn hunt yesterday and it was great. Jubel did fantastic and now has two Qs towards his novice title. They called for snow in the afternoon, snow started around 9:30am so we trialled in the snow. Froze my butt off, lots of time in the car with the heat running.

I missed the start of the results for the instinct/novice trial while staying warm in my car. Came down to see the progress of the second trial's start just in time to hear them calling out Jubel's name for coming in fourth place in large dog novice(1 min 1 second). I think there where 21 dogs in his class so I was very happy with that. On his second run he made a B-line to the rat from the start box and was on it in seconds. Took me about 40 seconds to get his focus off the rat and complete the tunnel and climb afterwards. One of the other people told me Jubel had the fastest instinct time but I didn't hear that from a judge so not positive on that.

We left straight after our second run which was faster so I don't know where we ranked. Had to drive home from York, PA to the DC metro area and hoped to make it before it got dark and icy. Took almost three hours to get home.

Very proud of my boy and excited for future barn hunts. Jubel is a natural as I expected he'd be.

 

[JacksonsMom]

Did our first barn hunt yesterday and it was great. Jubel did fantastic and now has two Qs towards his novice title. They called for snow in the afternoon, snow started around 9:30am so we trialled in the snow. Froze my butt off, lots of time in the car with the heat running.

I missed the start of the results for the instinct/novice trial while staying warm in my car. Came down to see the progress of the second trial's start just in time to hear them calling out Jubel's name for coming in fourth place in large dog novice(1 min 1 second). I think there where 21 dogs in his class so I was very happy with that. On his second run he made a B-line to the rat from the start box and was on it in seconds. Took me about 40 seconds to get his focus off the rat and complete the tunnel and climb afterwards. One of the other people told me Jubel had the fastest instinct time but I didn't hear that from a judge so not positive on that.

We left straight after our second run which was faster so I don't know where we ranked. Had to drive home from York, PA to the DC metro area and hoped to make it before it got dark and icy. Took almost three hours to get home.

Very proud of my boy and excited for future barn hunts. Jubel is a natural as I expected he'd be.

YAY, awesome. So glad you got to do it with Jubel!

I SO regret that I did not sign Jackson up for the Novice hunt. We did one Instinct and he passed it with flying colors (first "place" in his group) and then we just sat around forever waiting for his ribbon, lol. I honestly just wasn't sure how he would do so didn't want to waste money on paying in advance, ya know? But now I'm bummed because I have to wait so long for the next trial to advance, LOL.

Glad he did so well! Go Jubel!

 

[Dagwall]

YAY, awesome. So glad you got to do it with Jubel!

I SO regret that I did not sign Jackson up for the Novice hunt. We did one Instinct and he passed it with flying colors (first "place" in his group) and then we just sat around forever waiting for his ribbon, lol. I honestly just wasn't sure how he would do so didn't want to waste money on paying in advance, ya know? But now I'm bummed because I have to wait so long for the next trial to advance, LOL.

Glad he did so well! Go Jubel!

We'll likely be at the same trial in April. Should be much nicer weather then than I had yesterday.